


A Game of Hats

by SuperFreakeh



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Drinking Games, M/M, etc. - Freeform, shit there's too many characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 03:20:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperFreakeh/pseuds/SuperFreakeh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Party time, and a Game of Hats ensues. Pick a place, object, and name and be on your way. Just...don't pick "closet", "jump rope", and "Dave Strider". Unless you're Karkat Vantas, of course, whom Fate seems to have it in for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Game of Hats

“Nope. No way in hell. Not with that assgrabbing, dumbfuck of a life form.”  
Snickers from all corners of the room. “Why not?” Jade asks, her voice a bit too innocent.  
“He doesn’t fucking count.”  
“Hey, that’s hurtful,” Dave breaks in, a playful smirk on his face. “Now let’s go do this.” He stands up in one smooth move and advances towards the opposite side of the circle where Karkat is sitting cross-legged.  
The petite troll feverishly waves his hands and attempts to protest. “Oh, nonononono, I said no—!” but there is never any more time for him to finish. Dave Strider has deftly scooped him up and slung him over his shoulders.  
“Guys! Strider, I’m telling you—!” and once more Karkat is cut off by a slap on the ass from Dave. “You’re as good as mine, Vantas.”  
-o-  
An hour earlier, Karkat was being dragged into the Lalonde’s house party by Gamzee. Feeling indebted to his moirail, if one could even call their relationship that, Karkat caved when Gamzee asked him to attend the party.  
“It’s fucking last minute, Gamzee. There’s no way we’d be admitted.”  
“Chill out, it’s just Rose and her human pals. No need to go all up motherfucking psycho here, Karbro,” Gamzee drawls. Karkat has a hard time even understanding what he just said.  
“Yeah, but I’m probably unwanted and—”  
“Shoosh, brah. Don’t be sayin’ no such thing. Your existence is here and now, and it’s a motherfucking fucker of a miracle, it is.”  
Karkat frowns. “Okay, now what did you just say?”  
“That’s the spirit, man. Let’s trip the motherfuck out, now.” Without any words to describe his current situation, Karkat gives in even as his elbow is being pulled from its socket on the way to the door. He attempts to break free, but Gamzee’s grip is obliviously iron-like. He sighs as they make their way to the party, about a mile down the road.  
It’s not until he hears the muted sound of far-off techno that Karkat thinks to ask his friend about the other guests. “So, it’ll be Lalonde and Egderp and Harley for sure…what about the others?” he asks.  
“Others?” Gamzee, towering above the smaller troll, looks down with only lazy confusion on his face.  
“Yeah. Eridan, Sollux, Vriska, you know. The others.” Karkat secretly prays that none of the mentioned trolls will be there.  
No such luck. “Yeah, I think they be out here tonight, too.” Ugh.  
“Okay, but anyone else? Strider?” Karkat almost doesn’t mention the name because once again, he’s praying that the kid won’t show up, and so far Karkat’s been unlucky tonight.  
“Huh? I can’t motherfuckin’ hear ya, bro.”  
Are you serious? But Karkat realizes that as they approach the large house, its windows blaring with various lights and the bass making his heart beat in time, that there is almost no way Gamzee could hear him now. He gives up; whatever Fate had in store for him tonight had better happen and be done with.  
The duo walks up the pathway. It was quite the walk here, but it was almost worth it, Karkat thinks. The lights cast daunting but colorful shadows upon every crevice and harmless lasers sway to and fro across the lawn. The house is huge but secluded, and it’s the perfect night for a party. There are small clumps of kids and trolls alike hanging off of the porch or chasing each other in the grass, and far off in the fields is the subtle glow of glow sticks. As they are let in through the door by a tipsy, scantily-clad girl, the party atmosphere finally kicks in and Karkat can feel it. Tonight, he thinks. Anything can happen.  
-o-  
It’s not long before Gamzee goes off on his own and leaves Karkat. He gives a small wave to the tall troll and his friend waves back before going off with Tavros. Karkat is content to just sip a fruity drink and people-watch from the sofa. It’s maybe an hour before his sanctuary is discovered, though, and the awakening is not necessarily pleasant.  
“Kar-kat!” Terezi sings in a raspy voice. With her is Vriska, and though the blue-blood troll appears to be thoroughly inebriated, she still maintains that steely look in her good eye. Karkat looks up, having been previously occupied in examining a couple who were mixing at least two dozen different drinks into a single cup.  
“The fuck do you want, ‘Rezi?” he grumbles. His buzz wore off a little bit ago, and he hadn’t bothered to refill his cup since then. Fortunately though, Terezi has it covered. After a deep inhale, a look of shock passes through her and she reacts instantly to fill his poor empty Solo cup. Though she has Vriska hanging off of her, arms draped over her neck and a half-full cup in her hand, Terezi still manages. Sloppily, she pours some of her red mystery liquid into his cup and puts her own up to her lips.  
“Cheers!” she shouts, and a few other people nearby hear and join in. Vriska cackles and licks the red off of Terezi’s face after they’ve drank. Karkat, however, just takes a sip and decides it’s too sweet. He makes a face and it’s picked up on by Vriska.  
“Awh, no need to be pouty, Karkles!” She tries to shoosh-pap him but is too slow in her drunken stupor, and he easily pushes her away. She overreacts, pulling Terezi backwards and spilling most of their drink. “Karkat!” she gasps. “How dare…how…” Terezi smiles and pulls Vriska’s face back towards her.  
“Don’t mind that grumpy goose, Vriskers! We can still have fun,” and the way she waggles her eyebrows at the taller female troll makes Karkat feel sick. The pair is nuzzling close together now and Karkat decides it’s time to either walk back home or find someone worth talking to. He moves away from the couple when Terezi reaches out to put a clawed hand on his shoulder. “Just don’t miss the Game at midnight, n’kay?” Then she goes back to giggling with Vriska.  
Karkat is confused. What “Game”? But he shakes his head and sets down the crappy drink on the floor. Maybe somebody lucky will kick it over and ruin their shoes or some shit. Anything to piss off an unsuspecting person.  
Making his way through the throngs of people, he seeks to escape the volume and the lights. He climbs the stairs of the Lalonde household, thinking maybe he can find Rose or her kooky girlfriend, Kanaya. At the top of the stairs, he pauses and sees exactly who he was looking for. Good news? Not exactly. The pair of girls, hair tousled and clothing stretched out, stumble out of a room holding on to each other. He backs up against the hallway to let them through and Rose hiccups and sends him a wave. Kanaya pokes him on her way to assisting the blonde down the stairs. “Game at midnight, Karkat,” she calls as she successfully prevents Rose from taking a tumble on the way down. Which admittedly would have been ironic as hell in a certain somebody’s book.  
Speaking of…  
The young troll clenches his eyes shut. He would take a horde of slimy Vriska’s, drunk Terezi’s, and horny Rose-and-Kanaya’s before he even thought about that certain somebody. No fuckin’ way, no fuckin’ how.  
Welp, looks like even the most level-headed of his friends are in a partying mood, which means that Karkat is again on his own. Knowing the general layout of the large house, he makes his way down the hall and turns a corner, opening what appears to be a glass-paned, closet door. However, behind the door is not the usual stack of linen and towels (which would be gone anyways; used up by a different somebody) but an open balcony.  
He steps outside. It’s a humid summer night, but there’s a breeze that could easily cool through a t-shirt. Fortunately for him, he wore a black, zip-up hoodie, and the wind doesn’t stand a chance. He leans on the railing and looks up at the stars, in awe at how they can still shine with all this light and chaos happening below. It’s a wonderful, peaceful night.  
It’s a shame it couldn’t have stayed that way.  
The balcony door opens behind him, giving him a start. Whipping around quickly, he attempts to see in the dark who else could know about the sanctuary he was previously enjoying. The hallway inside is dimly lit, but the light it provides is enough to give away the bright red sneakers of the intruder.  
Karkat starts to get angry. “What are you doing here, Strider?” The words are forced from his lithe tongue through his fangs and out to his lips. Tonight is not the night to be fucking with Karkat Vantas; Dave Strider should know this. Dave Strider should know everything.  
“It’s a free country. I do what I want.” The boy shrugs, his shoulders noticeably moving inside the doorway. Soon though, he makes a move and joins Karkat on the balcony. “It’s a nice night for this, after all.”  
“It was a nice night. Until you fucked it up.”  
“And how ever did I manage that, dear Karkat?” Damn that mask of indifference. Damn that gorgeously-toned body. Damn that breeze which ruffles that signature shirt of his, making it so just the most teasing parts of pale, freckled skin are exposed.  
God damn it all. If only he wasn’t standing so close…  
“You exist. And you took it upon your nasty, nooksucking self to come here and make a fuckall of my night.” Karkat was about to clear his throat but figured that if he did, Dave would surely know he was uncomfortable. There was really no winning with the guy. Or at least, no winning that Dave would admit to.  
“Hmm, it wasn’t all that hard then, if all I had to do was exist.” If Karkat dared to look over at the sunglasses-clad boy, he was sure he’d find a smirk.  
“It seems you do your job well then.” What else was there to say? Talking with Dave was always awkward.  
“I’m glad you think so.”  
They stood there for a while. At first, Karkat didn’t want to leave, fearing that Dave would think he was a pussy for leaving the balcony first. But soon, and as midnight drew nearer, Karkat realized he didn’t care.  
With an exasperated sigh, letting out all the breath he hadn’t known he’d been keeping in for the last half hour, he stood up straight and made to leave the balcony, with the intent of going home to sleep.  
He had almost reached the door when Dave finally spoke again. “You playing the Game tonight?”  
Hand on the doorknob (so close, and yet, so far!) Karkat replied, clearly irritated. “Hell no. I don’t even know what it is, and everybody’s been mentioning it tonight. And if everybody’s in on this ‘Game’, then I sure as shit don’t want to be.” The clawed hand not on the doorknob is clenched tight into a fist. He was this close to freedom.  
“You should play.”  
Karkat turns around and crosses his arms. The rational part of him says to not give in to Strider’s ominous and tantalizing statements. But the other part of him, the part that was clearly fed by the booze tonight, says to finally find out what the fuck this Game is.  
That part of him evidently wins. “I’ll play once I know what it is.”  
Dave gets up from his place on the balcony and walks towards the troll. “Well it’s almost midnight. You can learn on the way.”  
Karkat is surprised. “Wai—on the way? Nonono, I don’t think you heard me. I’m not fucking playing!”  
“Come on. This way, Vantas.” Dave squeezes through the doorway and drags Karkat along, guiding him through the hallways by the shoulders. “Besides, you just said you would play once you knew what it was. And you’re about to find out.” He gives Karkat’s shoulder a squeeze, and Karkat is not sure whether it was for reassurance or to further establish control of the situation. Maybe it’s a bit of both?  
Nah, Strider’s a heartless creep, and he knows that. Shoulder squeezes? Obviously meant to make sure Karkat knew who in the situation could pop a shoulder socket more. And in this situation, it’s clear that Dave’s the physically stronger one. Though perhaps, barely.  
Karkat’s led by the blonde heartthrob (wait, wha—) to the basement, a nicely-furnished, modern, open space. The basement has a pool table, home theater, and a full bar, now cleared out by all the party-goers except for fourteen partially-to-completely drunk teenagers, all sitting in various positions in a circle. On the bar counter, among the humorously-large bottles of alcohol and seriously ill boombox blasting somebody’s iPod, are three hats. There’s a baseball cap, a fedora, and a fitted cap with “YOLO” printed on the back. Absently, Karkat wonders what all of his friends, and these weird hats, are doing here in one place.  
“Karkat, Dave, you came!” Jade Harley squeals as Nepeta pats her knee. “We totes thought you weren’t gonna be able to get him, Dave.” Dave just smiles and winks over at Karkat, who is just now making attempts to escape the other’s grip.  
“Wasn’t too terribly hard. Did undergo some verbal abuse, though.”  
“Well, I’m glad you two came to play!”  
Jade pats her hand on an open spot in the circle and Dave brings Karkat to sit by Jade. Dave himself sits in between Karkat and John. The others are lounging around and nods can be seen, signaling the beginning of the Game.  
“Woot, now we can start!” Vriska shouts, and points a finger at Tavros, who had been keeping a low profile until then. “Gather the hats!” Obediently, the timid troll gets up from his comfortable spot on Gamzee’s lap and retrieves the hats, putting them in the middle of the circle.  
Settling down, Karkat finally asks, “So how do we play this ‘Game’?”  
There are a few starts but it is Aradia that answers in coherent sentences. “In each of these hats are slips of paper,” she states matter-of-factly. “The baseball cap has slips of paper with different locations in the house written on them, the fedora contains the papers with various objects, and the fitted cap has the names of people here. Each person takes a turn selecting a slip of paper from each one.”  
“And what the hell are you supposed to do after that?”  
“Well,” and here is where the female troll gets a rare flirty look in her eyes, “That is entirely up to you.”  
Oh great. It was this kind of game. Why couldn’t they play Catchphrase or Scene It? Even a simple version of Seven Minutes in Heaven would be preferred. Why do his friends always have to complicate things? Karkat was beginning to regret even going to the party.  
He shook his head. “So how do we find out who goes first?”  
“You spin the bottle, dipshit,” Sollux responds in annoyance. Though he, himself, is swaying just a little bit, he still points a finger resolutely at what Karkat must have overlooked: the bottle of Effen vodka next to the hats. It looks like only a few sips have been taken from the thing. “If it lands on you, you take a swig and pick stuff out of the hats.” To demonstrate, he takes a sip from the bottle. However, before he can take another one, Feferi slaps his hand, squeaking, “Save some for the others!”  
Karkat is deep into contemplation. Simple enough, he thinks. Still a regretful decision, but at least he knows what the damn Game is now. He has two options that he can see right now: refuse to play and run out the window, or go along with it and hope he doesn’t end up with anybody he might kill in the dark. With an inaudible sigh, he relents. Might as well go along with it.  
With everybody caught up, the Game can officially begin, and humans and trolls alike are getting antsy. Terezi’s nimble fingers have developed a twitch and John keeps tugging at Dave’s sleeve. But they all seem to be waiting for Karkat. Crossing his arms, and mentally, his fingers, he nods. “Okay, so who’s gonna be the spinner?”  
Several hands come up, but only one stands out. “Ooh! Me!” Feferi is practically jumping in the air, hand raised like a school girl from the student council.  
“Go for it,” is the unenthusiastic response.  
The heiress scrambles to the center, takes a swig from the Effen bottle like a true pirate, and gives it a good spin, then returns to her spot in between Sollux and Eridan. Eridan is just then putting his hand down, and looks slightly miffed at not being chosen. Feferi pats him on the leg lightly but then whispers over to Sollux, louder than she probably intended, “Indirect kiss!” and giggles. Both males’ faces heat up but for different reasons, and it takes Equius to pull the two apart. It’s two minutes before anybody notices who the bottle landed on.  
“Oh, Tavros! Look at that,” remarks Rose, who brings everyone’s attention back to the Game. The bottle is pushed towards him but he declines and crawls to the middle to pick from the hats. Cheers abound as the first “contestant” takes his pick, and Karkat faintly hears Dave mumble something about them needing more alcohol pretty soon.  
Karkat looks over at Dave and notices that John is practically in his lap. Head resting peacefully in the crook of the blonde’s neck, the two look like they were made to be together. No doubt they’re both hoping they pick each other, Karkat thinks, becoming agitated with every thought that pops in his head.  
He’s soon distracted, though, with the results of Tavros’ pickings. Slightly stumbling back to his spot, he nervously reads off the slips of paper, tiny bits of fear coming into view. “So, uh, I have ‘kitchen’, ‘belt’, and…” He goes completely white. Urged on, however, he continues. “Vriska.”  
The room goes quiet, with Vriska’s face quickly clouding to a brilliant pink. “You’ve got to be shitting me! I get paired up with this freak?!” She stands up shakily, Terezi aiding her in her half-drunken stupor.  
“It’s, uh, okay if you don’t, uh, want to.” It’s evident to most, though, that Tavros is really hoping for Vriska to back down.  
Unfortunately for the brown-blood, Spiderbitch goes in a completely different direction. “Fuck it, let’s do this then!” And angrily, she strides over to the other side of the circle and grabs him by the shirt collar. “Aradia, where can I find some damn belts? We’re gonna need about eight of ‘em.”  
“All of the items written on the papers can be found behind the counter,” Aradia answers smoothly.  
“C’mon, then!” Vriska shouts as she pulls Tavros along. She lets go of him momentarily to pick up various belts, not caring if they’re pink and glittery or black and stretchy. Then she grips him by the shirt again and leads him up the stairs to the main kitchen.  
The sound of the boom box playing some Nicki Minaj song is all that can be heard, and Karkat is glad that there’s at least some background noise. The first to break the silence among the friends is Equius. “I don’t think we should go up there for a while,” he says coolly.  
Karkat had been thinking the same thing. “You got that right,” he says and the others nod.  
“Next up? Fefurry, you want to spin for us again?” Nepeta purrs. Enthusiastically, Feferi goes through the same motions as before, and slowly, with each spin, more and more people disappear from the circle.  
The next couple to go is Terezi and John. Karkat is secretly glad that John has to go with her, but at the same time mad that she has to go with him. Still, when he sees the longing glance John gives Dave, he feels instantly gratified.  
Next is Aradia and Equius, then Eridan and Nepeta. Rose and Kanaya manage to be put together by some sort of witchcraft. Then it’s down to six. Gamzee picks out ‘guest room’, ‘Mardi Gras beads’, and ‘Sollux’, who sighs and then follows after him.  
With only Karkat, Feferi, Jade, and Dave left, Karkat is feeling a bit nervous. Sure, he wouldn’t really mind having to hang out with Feferi or Jade, but Dave…well the odds of him picking Dave were too high for his liking.  
Feferi, the designated bottle spinner, spun the Effen, which was drained of almost every drop by now. Round and round the clear glass spun, warping the reflections of the trolls and humans gathered around it. It seemed to spin on forever, but the next time Karkat blinked, the bottle had landed on him. Everything seemed to move slower for some reason, and he bent down to pick up the bottle, chugging all that was left of it. Groggily, and feeling the sting of the vodka (which tasted more like nail polish than anything else), he moves to the center of the tiny circle. Taking the baseball cap in his left hand, he squeezes his eyes shut and hopes for the best.  
He pulls out the first slip of paper and reads it off. “Closet.” Moving to the fedora, he again swishes his hand around the brim then picks a paper from the sea of slips. “Jump rope.” And finally, the killer is the last one. Reaching oh-so-slowly into the stupid fitted cap, he pulls out a tiny, bent, rectangle of paper. Scrawled in light pencil reads, “Dave Strider.” Suddenly, the idea of jumping out of a window doesn’t sound so bad anymore. He’s sure that what little color he had in his skin has completely drained and was rapidly being replaced by a light rose hue.  
He didn’t want to do this.  
Unfortunately for him, somebody else did.  
“Well, this makes things easier, doesn’t it?”  
Karkat refuses to allow Dave’s comment to sink in. Still holding the papers, he’s finally able to form audible words.  
“Nope.” Way to go, Karkat. You definitely get points for eloquence.  
“Heh, what was that, Vantas?” Dave makes no effort to hide his grin.  
“No way in hell. Not with that assgrabbing, dumbfuck of a lifeform.” Clearly, his brain is not functioning at the moment.  
Snickers from all corners of the room. “Why not?” Jade asks, her voice a bit too innocent.  
“He doesn’t fucking count.”  
“Hey, that’s hurtful,” Dave breaks in, a playful smirk on his face. “Now let’s go do this.” He stands up in one smooth move and advances towards the opposite side of the circle where Karkat is sitting cross-legged.  
The petite troll feverishly waves his hands and attempts to protest. “Oh, nonononono, I said no—!” but there is never any more time for him to finish. Dave Strider has deftly scooped him up and slung him over his shoulders.  
“Guys! Strider, I’m telling you—!” and once more Karkat is cut off by a slap on the ass from Dave. “You’re as good as mine, Vantas.”  
“Have fun you guys!” Feferi calls and Jade waves. Dave makes a pit stop at the bar counter and finds a clear, plastic jump rope which he slings directly over Karkat.  
“Ow! Hey Strider, you might want to be more careful!” the troll protests. Of course, it goes unnoticed.  
Dave’s shoes pad along the carpet and they take turn after turn in the labyrinth of a basement. Each time Karkat starts to slip, he’s tugged back up comfortably on the taller boy’s shoulders. Soon, though, Dave finds an unoccupied bedroom and makes his way to the closet.  
“You know, we could just do this here,” Karkat states, sweeping his arm over the bedroom. “I don’t see why it has to be a closet.”  
Dave is preoccupied with opening the closet. After a moment, he replies, “The hats have spoken.”  
So damn cryptic. “What was that?”  
“The hats clearly wanted you in a closet,” Dave clarifies, but then adds, “So you could come out of it.”  
“You must think you’re clever,” Karkat sneers. He’s jolted out of it, though, when Dave decides to abruptly grab him by the hips and set him down on the floor of the closet.  
Upon first glance, the troll can see that the closet is practically empty. It’s brightly lit, with light yellow walls and white molding that lines the ceiling. There are a few typical boxes, neatly stacked, and white wooden cubbies, but other than that, it’s perfect.  
Wait, perfect?  
Empty. The closet is otherwise empty.  
Dave slides the wooden doors shut behind him and plops down in front of Karkat. There’s maybe three feet between the two of them, and their backs are leaning on the walls. “Not a lot of space to work with here, I guess,” Karkat muses. He’s still observing the closet.  
Dave gives nothing away, his face stoic as a statue. Doesn’t speak, doesn’t move.  
Patting the floor around him, the petite troll crosses his legs and finally addresses the human sitting across from him. “So what are you going to do to me? Hang me up by this jump rope here and fuck me or just look at me?” he says, the obvious irritation practically dripping off of his words.  
When the boy in front of him finally moves, he only looks defeated, a look that shocks Karkat. “Is that really all you think I want?” Dave asks. His voice is steady for the most part, but there’s still evident strain in it.  
Karkat isn’t sure how to respond when Dave looks so vulnerable like this. “I, uh, I don’t know?” His voice raises in pitch as he realizes he’s responding back with a question. “I mean, I dunno. I thought so. Maybe.”  
A sigh that could break his heart. “I was afraid of that. And I’m really sorry.”  
-o-  
“For what?” Karkat is still confused.  
“For leading you to believe that all I wanted was sex.” There are no words that can express the troll’s utter confusion; he just lets Strider keep talking. “I swear, I never meant to come across like that. I hope you can forgive me.”  
What does he say to that? Dave’s got his forearms propped up on his knees but his shaded face won’t even look at Karkat, who’s feeling more than uncomfortable right now. And in fact, more than uncomfortable, the troll is feeling guilty. Though for what, he has yet to fully understand. It seems, however, that at the time, there is only one thing he can think of to do.  
“I…forgive you.” Scooting forward, Karkat brings his face closer to Dave’s. He tentatively reaches a gray palm over to the boy’s jaw line. Dave looks up, surprised, his eyebrows knit in confusion.  
“Vantas, what—” but it is Dave’s turn to be cut off. A chaste kiss from the troll, planted sweetly and shyly on his lips, still lingers even when he pulls away.  
The human is dumbfounded, but the troll seems to at last know just what to say. “Just…don’t speak, okay? You don’t have to be sorry.” Karkat’s eyes glimmer with a bit of hope and what appears to be a bit of affection, and damn, does he look kissable right now.  
Dave deftly scoops Karkat into his lap and leans in for another kiss. Caressing his ashen face, the boy hooks a finger under Karkat’s chin and allows their lips to meet again, and this time it is both mutual and purposeful. It’s a beautiful bliss that they’re able to enjoy for the time being. The blonde gently teases the troll’s lower lip, biting lovingly as he pulls the other closer towards him. Karkat has no objections, wrapping his arms around Dave even as he sits sideways in his lap. Red eyes flutter open for a moment to meet brilliant candy irises, and it’s quickly decided that Dave no longer needs the shades. In a single motion, Karkat swipes the shades from Dave’s face even as he continues to nuzzle closer and play with the strands of blonde on the back of the boy’s neck.  
The need for more leverage arises, and Karkat adjusts so he is straddling Dave, hands ghosting from the back of his neck to various points on his smooth yet angular face. He then sinks deeper into the kiss, finally realizing that this is what he truly wants. He lets his lithe tongue drag over Dave’s lower lip and is allowed entrance, to his surprise. However, he has to work on coaxing the other’s tongue out, which is a terrible feat in itself seeing as Dave is trying to get the upper hand as well.  
The kiss has turned heated and is laced with a touch of ferocity. Teeth clash against fangs, causing an unpleasant jitter to run through both of them, which only prompts the troll to tighten his grip on the back of the boy’s head and for said boy to move to grip the other’s belt and pull him in closer. Pale, lightly sunburned and calloused hands find their way to Karkat’s ass and give it a squeeze. Jumping just a little bit, the troll lets out a pant into the other’s mouth and can feel the smirk Dave’s giving him.  
Deciding it’s time for this to escalate somewhat, and to pay back Dave for pretty much every aspect of this mess, Karkat grinds his hips down forcefully on Dave’s lap and rewarded with a gasp and then a glare. Pulling back from quickly-bruising lips, it is Karkat’s turn to smirk, a look that is not well-received by Dave.  
“Dude.”  
“Mm, what?” Eyes half closed, stroking Dave’s chin almost sensually, Karkat hopes that he’s giving the kid a run for his money.  
“Warn me before you’re gonna do that.” The look on Dave’s face, reddened and scratched up a bit in places, is unmistakable: don’t fuck with me like that.  
“How about…no. Not anytime soon.” And with a sly grin, the troll lets his eyes slip shut and pulls on Dave’s abused lips again.  
This time, a grunt is the only thing the boy can get out, and it seems he has given up on any more verbal communication, for he pushes Karkat on his back and pins him down. Settling one knee just barely applying pressure to Karkat’s crotch, Dave uses one hand to hold the pair of gray wrists above his head and the other to tease and ghost under his black hoodie. Dave’s nimble fingers grace over every surface, tracing down vaguely outlined muscles and drawing circles on the troll’s hipbones with his fingernail.  
He looks up from his work to see Karkat breathless and twitching slightly. Deciding he’s teased Karkat enough, Dave releases his grip on gray wrists and works the hoodie off of him as quickly as possible. Karkat complies, and as soon as that particular article of clothing has been unceremoniously deposited on the carpet, they work together on Dave’s stupid barriers of cloth. Both shirtless and recovering slightly from the previous frenzy, they can finally simply observe each other. Karkat in particular takes in every freckle, every shadow cast by defined anatomy, and the way Dave’s brilliant, mysterious eyes cloud with lust to a beautiful maroon. Karkat gives a small smile, then remembering his duty to the Game, pulls Dave down towards him.  
A battle of tongues again ensues, but after Karkat gives a bite that draws blood, Dave moves elsewhere. Trailing pearly white teeth along his neck, pulling at the lobes of his ears, Dave leaves no part of Karkat untouched. After several gasping moments, the blonde moves lower, hands tracing muscular hips and lips gently sucking on one nipple, then the other. Karkat, engulfed in the moment entirely, grips strands of light hair in an attempt to find something solid.  
Dave reaches Karkat’s waistline and starts to unbutton his gray skinnies. With some difficulty, as Karkat was squirming underneath him, he pushes them down and a swift kick from Karkat leaves the jeans nowhere in sight. The troll’s face heats up as the exposure of his rather childish boxers. But hey, he wasn’t planning on getting laid tonight, so the Fresh Prince of Bel Air undergarments will have to do. Dave gives a teasing snap of the elastic and grins.  
“Idiot, just get these off.”  
“Patience, young padawan,” but he decides to comply. He begins to inch them off slowly, leaving a tantalizing tingle as the cold of the closet hits each inch of exposed skin. The boxers are about halfway off when Dave’s eyes wander to an object lying next to Karkat’s thigh; it’s the jump rope.  
The troll is squirming furiously now and trying to control himself in Strider’s midst. He sees Dave’s pause in the quick progress they were making and nudges him with his knee. “I said, get these off me!” but Dave shooshes him and puts a finger to his lips. He bends over Karkat to grab at the jump rope and looks suggestively back at the boy.  
“We’re not actually gonna use that, are we?” Shit. Forgot about the other part of the Game.  
Dave only gives a signature smirk. “Guess you’ll find out.”  
Before Karkat can protest, his hands are again held above his head and firmly pushed to the ground. Dave leans over him and kisses him again, focusing solely on the twist of lips and deft flicks of tongue. Karkat, hot already, moans openly and allows Dave to take his hands together and roughly wrap the clear, plastic jump rope around them. He ties the handles together and drags the ends lightly over Karkat’s shoulders, which earns him a shudder.  
Karkat pulls back, a couple drips of drool swiped at by Dave. The longing is suddenly more apparent to them than ever before, and Dave maintains a tight grip on Karkat’s bound wrists while panting slightly.  
“W-well, you…gonna do it?” The troll finally gets out. Dave’s smirk is still apparent but the intensity is lost due to the heat of the moment.  
“You kinky bastard,” is the light response. Dave accompanies it with a sudden grind downwards and Karkat is practically drowning in the sudden light feeling below his waistband.  
He growls at the blonde, “You’re one to talk,” but Dave takes it all in stride and only speeds up their friction.  
Impatience growing on both ends, and with the jump rope cutting into his wrists in the most deliciously agonizing way, Dave finally makes the move they were both waiting for. He releases his grip on Karkat’s hands and uses it instead to hold his hips down. The other hand pulls the boxers off completely and flings them into the corner.  
His first reaction is, “Dude.”  
Karkat’s cheeks burn a fiery cherry as he retorts, “It’s a nook, human. Better get used to it.” He’s expecting to have to explain to Dave more of the basics of troll reproduction when he feels the light touch of fingertip tracing around him. He shivers. Guess Dave didn’t really care too much about their differences. Karkat releases another moan and realizes that he doesn’t, either.  
Dave’s lightly tracing the nook while he kisses a trail from Karkat’s hipbones to his inner thighs. Karkat’s throws his head back, relishing in the feeling of his hands tightly restrained and the insistent need to touch himself somewhere, anywhere, because Dave’s teasing is becoming too much. It appears it’s becoming too much for the blonde, too, because it’s after a couple minutes of the tracing and kissing and pinching that Dave scoots back from his work and strips off his pants and boxers as fast as anyone with a naked troll and a heavy need could.  
Karkat almost mumbles, “Finally,” but is cut short by the surge of pleasure brought on by the coaxing of Dave’s fingers inside his nook. “Fuck…” and Dave’s already licking and inserting two fingers, pulling them out when the tip of a bright red bulge slithers out.  
“Fuck is right,” he says in awe, and his shock would be more evident if he weren’t already so painfully hard, to the point of gasping at the slightest touch. He only hesitates slightly when Karkat nudges him, looking up at him from lidded eyes, and takes the initiative.  
With unsure hands, he traces a fingernail up the side and around the base. “Shit, Karkat,” he gasps, and adds more fingers to the mix, tapping and sliding along the bulge until Karkat becomes speechless and he can’t hold back anymore. There’s a brilliantly red substance dripping on his fingers now, and he resists the temptation to taste it, to see if it tastes just as intoxicatingly cherry as it looks. He looks away from Karkat for the moment, slicking himself with the fluid and reveling in how incredibly alien it feels against him.  
He moans for Karkat who looks up at him and struggles against his restraints, needing to feel Dave himself. Dave finishes preparing himself and again uses his swift fingers to tug and tease at Karkat’s bulge. Karkat leans forward as much as he can and meets Dave’s lips halfway. It’s open and sloppy but it’s fueled all the way. Dave’s breath is hot and airy against his neck when he breathes, “You ready?” to which the troll can only get out a half nod.  
It’s a peculiar sensation when Karkat’s hips are hoisted a couple inches above Dave’s waist and he feels a sudden sharp fullness. Dave’s fingers are slick and eager when he dips them between Karkat’s cheeks, and the realization of what is happening hits Karkat who curses and strains his neck to get a better view of what Dave is working at.  
Dave spreads the boy’s legs and starts moving his two fingers. First as a unit, side to side, then once he has loosened up and is driven to fewer hip jerks and more breathless gasps, scissoring the fingers, spreading him ever wider.  
The room feels too small and dense, and a heavy heat fills Karkat’s lungs as he feels his bottom being filled with prodding and slipping and glorious movement. He lies with his lungs struggling to fill with enough air as Dave adds a third finger, feeling more stretched than before. The sensible part of his brain shuts down completely as he begins to thrust onto the fingers, his need for more of the full feeling overcoming anything else.  
Dave senses it, and gradually pulls his fingers out. Slicking himself over once more, he positions himself slightly more above Karkat and drags his hips closer to him. He gives the troll a single wet, chaste kiss before sliding himself in slowly and easefully.  
“Fuck, Vantas.” He bites his lip hard and the pain of teeth on bruised lips sends a surge of energy into his hips. He rolls his hips out inch by inch, and in again, the walls inside Karkat being too hot and too tight to bear. “Shit,” he gasps as his vocabulary steadily dwindles to a bundle of curses.  
Karkat is practically shaking from the feeling of Dave inside me and himself spreading wider with each thrust. The pain overtook his brain a moment as it reminded itself that trolls were probably not supposed to procreate like this, but the moment the blonde took hold of his hips and bent bruises into the skin, all thoughts dissipated.  
It took a few moments for them to build up steam, but once Karkat’s pain was dulled to a continuous ripple of pleasure, their rhythm built to a steady, deep movement. As Dave’s hips moved, he brought one slender hand to Karkat’s bulge to bring him closer to the edge. This time, his whole palm took the bulge and was in turn wrapped around as though it moved autonomously.  
Not long after Dave began running his hand over and around the bulge did Karkat begin to see stars in the corners of his vision. “Da-ave…” Dave only grunted and kept up his movements, himself already close to climax. Heat filled Karkat up from bottom to top and settled behind his chest as he cried out when Dave hit the perfect spot. His back arched and his hands trembled against the rope and his bulge tightened around Dave’s hand.  
As his back hit the ground again, he quivered as he rode the aftershocks of orgasm. Dave wasn’t far behind, hitting deep inside Karkat once more before taking himself out and stroking himself as ecstasy filled his head. White droplets of cum splattered delicately against Karkat’s chest and his bulge slowly drew itself back into his nook, leaving a trail of translucent red against his hips.  
The troll was breathing hard when he found Dave laying next to him, their noses an inch apart. He was gazing deeply in the other’s eyes, finding some meaning behind their identical irises. Dave smiled, gave a genuine smile, and pulled the plastic cord from Karkat’s wrists. He brought his hands in front of them and massaged them gently.  
It took Karkat a minute or more to come back down enough to realize that he just had sex with Dave Strider and what a mess. He rose to sit up and Dave followed suit. While Karkat spied a couple of towels in the closet, Dave wasn’t getting off the subject quite as quickly. “In a moment,” he murmurs, taking Karkat into his lap again and holding his chest close. Karkat was again floored by the beauty of red irises and amber freckles and leans against Dave. It had been quite the evening, and a moment like this wouldn’t happen for perhaps a very long time. He plays with Dave’s hair as they embrace, and soon finds his lips occupied by Dave’s slow and purposeful ones.  
They both smile into the kiss, content at the moment to simply bask in the warmth of the other. But something still bothered Karkat in the deepest depths of his mind and he had tried for so long to keep it hidden, but at a moment like this, he couldn’t help it.  
“Are…we gonna be like this from now on?” he asks in a voice so low and quiet Dave has to strain to hear it over their two heartbeats, which sounded and echoed to the ceiling of the closet.  
“Mmh, what do you mean?” he inquires as he buries his face into the crook of Karkat’s neck.  
“I mean, are we together now or what?” His nervousness was causing him to absent-mindedly twirl his fingernails over the marks he’d made on Dave’s back.  
“That depends.”  
That startled Karkat, and he pulls away quickly. “Depends on what?” he almost demanded. He was also becoming increasingly aware of his lack of clothes and, while it hadn’t bothered him in the slightest a few minutes ago, with this new question in the air it was bothering him greatly.  
Dave shrugs, his features returning to his old poker face. “Depends on if you’ll let me do this again.”  
Karkat’s eyes were wide when he breathed an audible sigh of relief. Almost angrily, he pushes lightly at Dave’s shoulders. “Or course we can, fuckwit.”  
Dave grins, apparently unable to contain his happiness. “Great. Oh, but there’s one other thing you have to do.”  
Karkat waves his hand and nudges closer in Dave’s lap. “Yeah, whatever. What.”  
“You have to let me tie you up with a jump rope again.”  
It was Karkat’s time to grin as he says in the most incredulous manner possible, “You know, that’s not even hardcore enough to be counted as—”  
“Iknowjustletmedoit,” Dave replies urgently, interrupting him at once.  
Karkat laughs gently, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist. “Whatever you say.”  
“That’s what I like to hear,” and there was relief in his voice.  
After a minute more, Dave finally ventures, “I love you,” in an unabashedly steady voice, and the response brought the most warmth he’d felt all night into his heart.  
“I love you, too.”  
The moon came to float high in the sky and the stars revealed themselves in glorious, radiant light. Partygoers lounged on railings and counters and spoke both softly and loudly to each other. A steady beat was kept upstairs as the music brought bodies together. Laughs were dealt and fleeting memories were made, only to be forgotten in the arrival of morning.  
But for two, it was only more memories in the making.  
“I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was the first fic I ever uploaded to the Internet. I would redo it now, but I figured what the hell. It's Christmas, throw some DaveKat smut at 'em. I'm trying really hard not to care about all the mistakes in this so just shush no comments


End file.
